


Looking Forward

by sassy_cissa



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-04-30 01:18:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14485635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassy_cissa/pseuds/sassy_cissa
Summary: Harry hopes his eighth year is his best ever.





	Looking Forward

**Author's Note:**

  * For [khalulu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/khalulu/gifts).
  * Inspired by [3 H/D Drabbles: Magical Artefacts II](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13577103) by [khalulu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/khalulu/pseuds/khalulu). 



> A remix of _[Not Too Shabby](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13577103/chapters/31163256)_ by **khalulu** (chapter 3 in the link above), originally written for Round 9 of the H/D Last Drabble Writer Standing contest.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Khalulu, I hope you enjoy this remix of your darling drabble. Many thanks to my darling O and my betas E and M. All to be praised to the hilt later. Trust me when I say this story would not be here without all of them.

Harry didn’t like going to the Headmistress’s office. Too many memories, too many ghosts. But when McGonagall summoned you, there wasn’t a whole lot you could do. Especially not with Hermione giving him _the eye_ from across the Gryffindor table.

“Tell her I’m on my way,” Harry told the house elf who waited patiently at his elbow. The little creature popped away and Harry sighed, pushing up from his seat. “I’ll see you in the common room later.”

Hermione nodded, and Ron gave him a blank look. “Where you goin’?” he asked around a mouthful of pumpkin pasty. Hermione rolled her eyes.

“Honestly, Ronald. If you’d stop stuffing food in your mouth and pay attention to what’s going on around you…”

Her voice faded as Harry walked away, and he grinned. It was good to know some things never changed.

The halls weren’t crowded but there were a fair number of students milling about, and Harry could feel their eyes following him as he passed. He hated that feeling, that prickling at the back of his neck that made him aware of the stares he got in classes and the hallways now. He hoped as the year went along they’d get used to him again and stop staring. It was almost as bad as that first year, when he’d been a celebrity without doing a thing but showing up. Maybe now that the madman was dead, things could settle into something like normal. Maybe. 

The gargoyle at the base of the staircase leading up to the headmaster’s office gave him pause; Harry didn’t know the new password. But the gargoyle just stepped aside with a regal dip of its head on seeing him, gesturing with one wing. The staircase began to move with a deep grinding of stone. Harry stepped onto one of the treads, looking up at the rectangle of light far above, a bit sad he hadn’t needed to guess the password. He supposed McGonagall wouldn’t have kept up Dumbledore’s penchant for choosing his current favourite sweet for entry. 

McGonagall was seated behind the massive desk when he entered her office, but didn’t seem to notice his presence immediately. Harry stood quietly while her quill scratched across a piece of parchment, her gray head bent, her glasses slipped down to the tip of her nose. Behind her on a high shelf sat the Sorting Hat, much the worse for wear after its battering during the Battle of Hogwarts, and, Harry was certain, watching him, although Harry also thought perhaps that assumption might be a bit mad on his part. Still, the hat’s always sardonic expression seemed even more so with its leather dried and splitting at the seams, but Harry’d heard it do its usual Sorting feast performance just the day before. 

“Good evening, Potter,” McGonagall said finally, looking up at him. “Have a seat.” 

She gestured to one of two cushy armchairs facing her desk, and Harry frowned slightly.

“Is someone else…” Harry broke off as footsteps sounded on the stone floor behind him, and he turned, going still when he saw who was entering through the office door.

Harry’d seen Draco Malfoy since the final battle, of course. He’d testified for him at the Wizengamot during the Death Eater trials, throwing what weight his recent notoriety had given him behind insisting that Malfoy and his mother be freed. Lucius had been returned to Azkaban, and all Harry could think was good riddance. But Malfoy and his mother? They didn’t deserve to be punished. Not the way the Ministry was going after all the other DeathEaters. Once Harry’d told the governing body how Narcissa had saved his life, and how Draco had basically done the same at Malfoy Manor, they’d been released. A bit reluctantly on the Aurors’ part, Harry recalls, but still. They were freed.

To be honest, Harry wasn’t sure Malfoy would return to Hogwarts for their eighth year, and he’d felt a surprising amount of relief when that distinctive head of white-blond hair appeared above the crowd at King’s Cross Station on the first of September. He’d also been relieved to see that his one-time rival looked rested and had regained some of the weight he’d lost during that last year of the war. Malfoy had looked at the mob of students and parents somewhat nervously, but no one seemed to be paying him any undue attention. Harry had made his mind up then and there to keep an eye on things, just to be sure. Malfoy had a right to an education after all. And it didn’t hurt a bit that the ruddy bastard was still one of the most beautiful men he’d ever seen.

Malfoy paused just inside the Headmistress’s door when he saw Harry, and they stared at one another, the moment drawing out and starting to feel oddly awkward. Or at least until a deep, melodious voice sounded from above them.

“Ah, Mr Malfoy. It’s so good to see you!”

Harry and Draco both turned as one, looking up at a portrait of an elegant old wizard seated in a painted version of the Headmaster’s chair. Long white hair flowed over his shoulders, and an even longer white beard reached nearly to his waist, gathered into a bauble-ended tie about half way down its length. 

“Professor Dumbledore,” Malfoy said with surprising calm before Harry had regained enough composure to say a word. Seeing his old mentor had made a lump fill Harry’s throat, one he doubted he could talk around. “I’d been hoping to get a chance to speak to you, sir.”

“Well, come here, my boy.” Dumbledore said with a benevolent smile, gesturing him closer. Malfoy went to stand at the base of the portrait. “Tell me how I can help you.”

“I…” Malfoy swallowed before going on. He straightened his shoulders, squaring them, then took a deep breath. His chin went up. “I’m sorry, sir. Malfoy hesitated for a moment, then added quickly, “For what happened that night on the Astronomy tower.” He looked away then, his mouth pressed together. “Your death was my fault.”

“Ah, Draco.” Dumbledore shook his head. “Severus explained you were caught up in the unfortunate after effects of my own foolishness and arrogance.” His face gentled as he looked down at Malfoy. “And I was dying long before Severus’s curse took my life.”

Malfoy’s head bowed. “I’m still sorry.” His voice was barely a whisper in the silence of the Headmistress’s office, and Harry stared in surprise at the back of the Malfoy’s blond head, so stunned he couldn’t have spoken if he had to. He knew Malfoy had changed, but he’d never imagined hearing him apologize… for anything, much less for what had happened to Dumbledore.

“I never should have repaired the Vanishing Cabinet. I never should have let them into the school.” Malfoy’s voice grew stronger, but Harry saw his shoulders trembling. He looked up at Dumbledore again. “I should have stood up to him.” 

Dumbledore sighed. “We all do things we regret, Draco. I have nothing to forgive you for, but I do think it’s time you forgave yourself. You only did what you were forced to do to save your family. And now—” He pushed himself up from the chair. “If you will excuse me, I’m due at a poker game.” At Malfoy’s look, Dumbledore chuckled. “We meet in a portrait in an old unused corridor. It wouldn’t do for the students to find their former Headmaster fleecing his friends. I do hope Armando hasn’t invited Binns tonight; he does tend to go on and on and on. We’re all dead, or he’d bore us to it.” He winked at Draco, then looked over at Harry. “You’re looking well, Harry.”

Harry blinked. “Uh, thank you, sir.”

“Do come see me when you have a chance to talk.” Dumbledore’s eyes were sharp and bright. “I’d love to do some catching up.”

“I’ll do that, sir, when it’s all right with the Headmistress.” Harry glanced over at McGonagall, who snorted softly, shaking her head at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore grinned back at her. “Very politic of you, Harry.”

He nodded to McGonagall, who nodded back, and then Dumbledore was gone.

McGonagall turned to the two young men in her office. “Gentlemen, if you please?” She gestured again to the two chairs in front of her desk and Harry lowered himself into one, as Malfoy came around the desk and sat stiffly on the edge of the other. 

McGonagall steepled her fingers in front of her, eyeing them both calmly. 

“Now that you have returned to Hogwarts to complete your educations,” she said smoothly, “there is some old business that I do believe needs to be put to rest. As eighth-year students, you have seven years worth of younger students who look up to you with admiration.”

Malfoy snorted and McGonagall arched a brow at him. “I’m sure Potter has endless admirers, Headmistress,” Malfoy said. “I seriously doubt I do, however.”

“I believe you are mistaken, Mr Malfoy. Be that as it may, you are still a student in my school, and I do not want any lingering tension. Therefore, I would like for you gentlemen to put the animosities of the past behind you and behave like the adults you now are. We can begin by the two of you—” McGonagall’s glance swivelled between them, “—shaking hands.”

Harry stiffened slightly. “Right…now?”

“No time like the present, I say.” McGonagall looked over at Malfoy. “Mr Malfoy?”

Malfoy eyed Harry, nonplussed, and Harry realized that this time the first approach was going to have to be his. He stood slowly, then turned to Malfoy and offered his hand. 

For several long seconds, Malfoy just stared at it, then he looked up and arched one fine, pale brow at Harry. He didn’t have to say a word. Immediately they were eleven years old again and Harry was telling him he could make his own choices about friends, thank you very much, while Malfoy stood there with his hand out. Harry finally realized how uncomfortable the waiting actually was. Hoping Malfoy would do better than he’d done and not leave him hanging, Harry just stood there, hand out, waiting. 

Finally, after what felt like forever, Malfoy stood and slowly reached out, taking Harry’s hand. His skin was warm and soft, but his grip was very strong.

“I’m willing to let bygones be bygones, Potter,” Malfoy said, “as long as that’s agreeable with you.

“Yes,” Harry said, squeezing into Malfoy’s grip. “I reckon we have other things to be thinking about this year besides an old rivalry.”

McGonagall rose to her feet, her expression cool but an undeniable light in her eyes. “Well done, gentlemen. Now we can move forward, the old bad blood left in the past. I don’t expect you to be best friends, but I’m glad you’ll be able to attend classes together with maturity.”

Harry liked the sound of that. As he stared into Malfoy’s storm cloud grey eyes, Harry realised he was surprisingly reluctant to release Malfoy’s hand. Harry felt his cheeks heat and as they released hands, he was pleased to see that Malfoy’s cheeks had a slight pink to them also. Harry smiled to himself as he found himself hoping that this would be his best year at Hogwarts and that Malfoy would play a major part in it.

**Author's Note:**

> [Fic headers](http://hd-remix.tumblr.com/post/174693851384/drarry-fic-looking-forward) and a [pull quote](http://hd-remix.tumblr.com/post/174698222478/to-be-honest-harry-wasnt-sure-malfoy-would) have been posted to tumblr. Help promote the fest by liking and reblogging!


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